Initiation of a pulsed HF laser with a CO2laser-produced plasma

A CO
2
laser-produced plasma was used to initiate an HF chemical laser. It was found that fluorine atoms produced by the thermal dissociation of CF
4
in the hot plasma rapidly diffused from the focal volume and chemically reacted with the surrounding hydrogen gas to produce excited HF molecules. Output powers greater than 500 W at 2.79 μm and small-signal gains greater than 6 percent/cm at 2.73 μm were observed. This method of chemical laser initiation should be compatible with a wide variety of reaction systems.